


Those Seated In Power

by omgchimeras



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Gen, Gossip, Implied Relationships, Relationship Discussions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 10:48:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18467398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/omgchimeras/pseuds/omgchimeras
Summary: The 99th Emperor of Britannia sweeps into the capitol. All minds and attention turns to those now in charge of the most powerful nation on Earth. Some minds turn to more perverse musings.





	Those Seated In Power

“While I would not impugn Sir Gottwald’s character, I never considered him to be the… sharpest tool in the shed.”

“So smarts are probably not it. What else do we have?”

The warm summer afternoon generously filtered sunlight through the trees of one of the many garden walkways in the Imperial Palace. Not currently embattled with cleaning, two talkative custodial staff busied themselves with gossip. 

The subject turned, as many had these passed few weeks, to the Emperor. The castaway prince who returned to ascend the throne in the most sensational fashion infiltrated even the most intimate parts of conversation. Both Thaddeus Trolestone and Rebecca Montinique, youthful members of rich blood whose parents felt the best way to ingratiate themselves was with their children’s servitude, had ended up with the royal equivalent of part-time jobs. The friends bemoaned this fact until the biggest event in the history of Britannia reared his head to make their jobs far more interesting.

The topic started with Thaddeus whispering into Rebecca’s ear ‘Does the Emperor have a fetish?’ during a shared trip to the laundry room and snowballed from there. By the time they snuck away to shirk their duties both parties had had enough thinking room to mull over their new fascination.

It wasn’t a singular person who arrived in Pendragon. Everyone knew the Circle of Nine that now made themselves at home in the capital of the world: The Mischievous Cat, The Steadfast Ninja, The Mad Scientist, The Lode-Bearing assistant, The FlEIJA Creator, The Loyal Captain of the Guard, The Mysterious Woman, The Knight of Zero, and The Emperor himself. So if The Emperor had a fetish, it would start with them. 

“Best to discount the cat,” Thaddeus had said. He once heard an alarming amount of stories of a far-flung relative whose… urges shifted towards livestock. The Emperor didn’t seem like the type of person for that.

“Oh, the cat’s a definite outlier,” Rebecca agreed with a serious expression. 

Their conversation ranged from bisexuality, to chest, to legs, to hands (‘red flag!’ Rebecca shouted) before they struck gold when they remembered that most sexual of areas: the mind.

“I’m just saying that three of the people he brought along are on the cutting edge of technology. A year ago Nightmares were stuck with land spinners, now they fly!” Rebecca intoned, throwing both hands to the sky in an imitation of Icarus. “Not to mention the FLEIJA.”

“It was Earl Asplund and Cecile who first outfitted that Lancelot with a Blaze Luminous…” Thaddeus thought out loud, a hand raised to his burgeoning beard. “But that doesn’t fit well with the others. Jeremiah we discussed, the Ele- Japanese ninja maid? No hints on her at all. I’ve yet to learn a single thing about the green-haired woman or the Knight of Zero.”

“Pizza. The green-haired woman loves pizza. C.C.! Her name is C.C.” Rebecca said, a look of satisfaction dawning on her.

“No, it’s not. C.C.’s not a name, it’s a designation at best. I heard the Emperor was into chess in his earlier days. C.C. is a carryover.”

“Oh yeah, C.C., the shorthand for literally no chess piece. My bad,” she replied with a double helping of snark.

“You have a point,” Thaddeus replied reluctantly, brows furrowed as he scanned his memory of chess pieces. “Still, C.C. is not a name. It’s not a chess piece but there’s no way it’s a name.”

“The Emperor himself called her that, one of the people cleaning the room overheard it. And not some old bat with hearing problems, Vigne, ears-of-a-hawk Vigne.”

“Knows-when-you-slacking-off-because-he-doesn’t-detect-the-right-amount-of-suffering Vigne?”

“Vigne,” Rebecca added solemnly.

“Vigne,” Thaddeus replied with what sounded like anger.

“Vigne,” both sighed huskily. Vigne was also incredibly attractive despite his attitude of working his subordinates like servants. Or maybe because of it.

“Still, if the Emperor calls you a name, it’s your name. That’s the law. So for now, it’s C.C.,” Rebecca said, mind made up.

“Fine,” Thaddeus conceded. “Question before we continue, is C.C. our empress?”

“Oh, I have no idea. She acts like it: gives orders, demands everything be brought to her, has those eyes.” Thaddeus shivered, he had seen the eyes Rebecca spoke of, she was right to denote them as such. He hadn’t even been on the receiving end of the penetrating, golden stare, only next to the one being chewed out, but he knew it would follow him for the rest of his days. “But aside from that, there’s been no official announcement of her station and no wedding to speak of.”

“We’re too loose. We need to narrow our list of suspects,” Thaddeus declared. “Instead of looking at everyone; we should be focus on the two people who never leave his side. 

“The pseudo-empress and the Knight of Zero? Those two are always flanking him. Always. He doesn’t go to the toilet alone,” Rebecca said with a smile.

“That’s a rumor at best but I concede your point.”

“Oh, so you’ve seen our Emperor use the bathroom?” she quipped.

“Admittedly not. Fine, whatever, the Emperor needs two other people to use the restroom,” Thaddeus delivered with a straight face and the wave of his hand. “So you believe that our Emperor consorts with that mysterious girl and the Knight of Zero.”

“Cooooorect~”

“So, we look for traits common to those two,” Thaddeus declared before imagining both in his mind’s eye. The Knight of Zero was a sturdily built man; tall, toned, rigid and always on alert. Steely green eyes and curly brown hair matching the light tan that was evidence of field work associated with the military. Lithe but with incredible strength etched into every inch; Thaddeus had once seen a man, a portly server, bump into the Knight and be thrown off his own feet by the impact. The Knight himself had remained unmoved except to catch the man mid-fall and set him graciously on the ground.

“Shouldn’t be too hard, let’s see,” Rebecca intoned while imagining the pseudo-empress. Sharp, golden eyes flashing into her subconscious before melting into a soft body outlined in that form-fitting jacket; the paleness of which matched her skin perfectly. The haughty attitude that hid a juvenile behind it; Rebecca recalled a day the staff had been sent out to retrieve (not make, because they were ‘already made perfectly elsewhere’) no less than three pizzas after the first two failed to live up to her standards. She had devoured all three, regardless.

There was a silence that persisted for a long time. Rebecca was the one courageous enough to break it.

“They don’t… um. They have literally nothing in common.”

“Yes,” Thaddeus replied, the weight of the realization weighing down his words. “It would appear that there is… nothing. Not even personality.”

“Neither of them are particularly smart. Perhaps our lord likes more… simple company.”

“That woman is not ‘simple’. I don’t think there’s a word to describe her-”

“Indescribable,” Rebecca interrupted with a grin. Thaddeus shoved her shoulder.

“There is no word to describe her I say,” he waved his arm around in a mockery of his father’s grandstanding. He cracked an eye open to bear witness to the laughter he heard play out over his friend’s features before his mind was set on high alert at the voice behind him.

“Gallivanting again, hm?” came the words that made them both jump. Vigne appeared from the ether, a curt line on his face.

“Vigne!” both shouted in unison, their bodies contorting to stand at attention, right arm raised in a military salute.

“Cease that,” he said with a sigh. “This area you’re using to hold court will soon be visited by his Highness. You’ve managed not to dirty it, so I will ask only for you both to show reverence when they arrive and then depart to busy yourselves with real work.”

“Yes sir! We apologize, we were discuss- we shall return to work.” Rebecca kicked herself for almost bringing the topic up in front of her favorite taskmaster. That would be the stupidest thing a functioning human could do.

“Wait. Sir, man-to-man, do you think his Highness has a certain type? You know, like a fetish?” Thaddeus asked.

Silence overtook them. Rebecca wanted to hit him. There was daring and then there was ‘get-both-me-and-Rebecca-into-trouble’ daring. However, a part of her had to respect asking one of the scariest men in the world such an asinine question. She’d been averting her eyes from their superior but shot them over to Vigne for a split second. The ‘no-look’ look etched into his face did not bode well. 

“I think you both are lucky. Lucky that your parents are important,” he said, sliding up to both before cupping both of their chins and directing their gazes up to meet his. “And extraordinarily lucky you are cute. Go. To the wall,” he said, relinquishing them.

They marched over as instructed, both eager to the point of bursting to be free to discuss being called ‘cute’. They bowed with practiced excellence upon reaching the wall and awaited the Emperor. Vigne stood in front of them, similarly bowed but prepared. 

The air grew tense, as if to mark the arrival of the three most powerful people in the realm. The Emperor walked two steps ahead as always, raven bangs cascaded flawlessly around his face, every inch of him effortless royalty, a gaze that pierced all. On his right, the Knight of Zero flanked him: tall, impressive, rigid and controlled; leonine grace framed in the body of a man. His eyes scanned the scene almost too quickly for mortal observation, always alert. And to the Emperor’s left, the mysterious woman, no royal gait, but one that marked her as indeed farther above them. There was no measurement to be taken in her actions, she did not need them, the earth bent around her.

At times like these even those like Thaddeus and Rebecca found it hard to breathe, as if the trappings of a fairy tale had fallen around their shoulders and sought to press them to the floor. Thaddeus and Rebecca had been to church many years throughout their lives and the force that pressed upon them now by these three people was akin to the religious devotion and fear that an all-knowing god inspired.

Was it the mysterious woman’s self-propriety projected outward so as to make others feel as worms? Was it the knowledge of the outright power contained within the Knight of Zero? Was it sheer force of personality and will that the emperor exuded as easily as he breathed? Perhaps it was all three, perhaps it was something beyond description. It did not matter, only reverence mattered here. 

And, to the more courageous (stupid), sneaking a peak.

This adventurous streak lead to a miracle.

Rebecca nudged Thaddeus just as they walked passed; at most times the Knight of Zero was shawled with an opulent cape to match that of the Emperor’s robes, a design choice to restate the sheer difference and magnanimity of the ninety-ninth regime. Today, the wind picked up just enough to move it. From their spot down the hallway, their deviant eyes drawn towards dereliction, Thaddeus and Rebecca spotted it. Their eyes roved over the two objects of desire. As if sculpted by the Roman gods themselves; to think such beauty existed on two different people in the same era and in the same place was a mockery to probability. Both were different in so many ways: muscular versus fat, tight versus bouncy, pliant versus rock hard, differences that were mirrors of who they were attached to. Their gazes swung like pendulums between twin perfections and their minds echoed the same sentiment.

‘The Emperor loves ass.’

**Author's Note:**

> They don't teach this in school but the smart thing to do is wait for an anime to be over for a decade and then write about it. 
> 
> I've always felt that the time in between Lelouch's ascension and the Zero Requiem was fertile ground for amazing fanfiction and I've read quite a lot of what's available. I love it. I also want to add my own and think there's plenty of room for more. Angst and drama grow well in this area but I'm not the best at those and other people have done a stellar job at them. So I'm here to make a little comedy.
> 
> Also technically AU since Sayako and Nina are both here even though their inclusion in the canon timeline of events would be impossible.


End file.
